EDITORIAL
Mike Williams talks about David Lynch. Here he is on the cover aged 78. A youngster. Apparently now just about confined to his house. He is the subject of the main feature this month, but not about his films, BUT HIS MUSIC! What a bore. The editorial is mainly about Foster Wallace's 1996 essay David Lynch Keeps His Head.
OPENING SCENES
Just about a new film called Daughters. Nothing else remotely interesting.
EDITOR'S CHOICE
Pamela Hutchinson chooses a new book called Armchair Theatre: A History of Feature Films on British Television 1929 - 1981. £110.00 !!!
IN PRODUCTION
Emerald Fennel is adapting Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights. Shooting should also start next year on the life of Mary Woolstencraft.
READERS LETTERS
There follows a few articles not of interest, but then a long reply by David Weir to Henry K Miller's "scathing review" of Weir's book about Visconti's The Leopard in the BFI Classics series. Have it!
TV EYE
A clever piece by Andrew Male about Inside No 9. He compares this brilliant series (now ended) to Alan Bennett's Talking Heads, Agatha Christie and Edgar Allan Poe. But to make it into a political point against the Tories does it no favours.
FLICK LIT
Nicole Flattery talks about the adaptation of Mary Gaitshill's Secretary that appeared in her Bad Behaviour collection of stories. She's impressed with the movie and tells us about the differences with the original. She thinks the happy ending is too bright but likes James Spader in the male lead.
THE MAGNIFICENT '74
Jessica Kuang asks us what might be the highest grossing movie of that year. It turns out to be Blazing Saddles which she thinks has a lot to do with writer Richard Pryor. Nothing was safe, not race, gender, elderly, disabled or gay. There was huge controversy about it, but it did well at the box office.
THE LONG TAKE
Pamela Hutchinson describes how the Saturn Film Company was set up in 1906 by Johann Schwarzer, a Viennese photographer to show "spicy" films. It was very successful until the police closed it down and destroyed most of the back catalogue. "Fortunately? some has been found and restored by Film Archive Austria. "We should look more closely at the films our ancestors clamoured to view".
DAVID LYNCH
The main feature this month of over nine pages is not about his movies but ...... his latest album of experimental music! No!!! Only the stills from his MOVIES were fine.
MIND YOUR LANGUAGE
Another awful six pages about a "documentary" of the Irish band Kneecap. I skipped it.
SCORES OF THE CENTURY (So far)
Twenty five of the best film music chosen by composers and critics. There is a great introduction about Lux Aeterna by Clint Mansell and how bits have been used so many times. (Check Out Sky Sports News). He continues to explain how film music has developed this century, especially some modern offbeat scores such as Johnny Greenwood's There Will Be Blood, Hamaguchi Rusyke's Drive My Car and Mica Levi's Under The Skin.
So to pick out my favourites from the 25 that has special music:
Drive (2011) Cliff Martinez "a synthwave fever dream"
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy Alberto Inglesias "humble sound design"
Under The Skin (2013) Mica Levi "unsettling"
Prisoners (2013) Johann Johannson "steadfast and resolute"
Hail Caesar (2016) Carter Burwell "soundtracked all Coen Bros films"
Raw (2016) Jim Williams "harsh but some real warmth"
You Were Neve Really Here (2017) Johnny Greenwood "technically thrilling"
Poor Things (2023) Jerskin Fendrix "sounds serrated as a bone saw"
SPOTLIGHT
The film music of Philip Glass.
BRIAN ENO
An eight page interview with Walter Murch as a backdrop to the new documentary Eno. in cinemas now. But ...... a new edit of the film for every screening! But it's all about sound and not music. For some reason (but it was brilliant) there is that scene from The Godfather where Michael Corleone shoots two competitors in the restaurant. It is the complete lack of music that makes it. Just the sound of the train on the elevated track in the distance. And a superb still from the film. So the talk is about sound. "I'm not really a film score composer in the normal sense". I'd have preferred someone who was.
REVIEWS : FILMS
Twisters: "the action feels like it's on a downward spiral" then "not so much about confronting climate change than enjoying it". See my review.
Then three other movies before:
Fly Me To The Moon : A posBritish crime writer itive review for the screenplay by Rose Gilroy and the performance of Scarlett Johannsson in the lead role. Less impressed by the last third and that "double bluff scenario" (I agreed.) See review.
Longlegs : "a tightening tourniquet of dread". Nicholas Cage "barely recognisable underneath prosthetics". See my review.
Only The River Flows
A Chinese film that looks interesting. I hope it makes it to the Rex Cinema Berkhamsted. A murder mystery investigated by Police Captain Ma.
REVIEWS : DVD'S
The Small Back Room: A neglected Powell and Pressburger drama, now in a newly released Studiocanal restoration. But £27.43 plus delivery! Try BFI Player at £3.50. David Farrar and Kathleen Byron star, "one of British cinema's great couples".
LOST AND FOUND
An obscure French drama Garde a vue from a book by British crime writer John Wainwright.
REDISCOVERY
A restoration of Ken Russell's The Music Lovers, a 1971 drama about Tchaikovsky. And a 1947 thriller Obsession by American director Edward Dymytuk who had left his homeland in the wake of the Unamerican Activities hearings. He previously had success with Crossfire.
REVIEWS : BOOKS
The most interesting of these is MUSIC FILMS: Documentaries, Concert Films and other Cinematic Representations of Popular Music by Neil Fox. On the cover?, A Hard Day's Night. Too obvious. Also mentioned in the review are This is Spinal Tap and Nashville. Maybe there are more interesting films included as there are 250 of them.
I skipped past "From the Archive" and "This Month in ... 1947" to:
ENDINGS
This month Adrian Martin talks about 1988's Cop, a thriller with a complicated plot from the James Elroy novel. It is the shock finale that interests the writer with James Woods as the LA cop of the title. "A taut minimalist thriller" that has a cult following. The final scene is in a gym where Woods confronts the crook. His last words are not "you are under arrest".
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